WATCH: Rep. Ryan Takes IRS Commissioner To Task Over Lost Emails

House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. speaks at the Center for New Security's Eight Annual National Security Conference in Washington.

Lauren Victoria Burke
/ AP

Originally published on June 21, 2014 12:14 pm

There were fireworks on Capitol Hill on Friday in the form of testy exchanges and charges that claims by the IRS were "unbelievable," which, if you've watched Washington for any period of time, is the closest politicians get to saying someone lied.

That was the case when Republican Rep. Paul Ryan hammered IRS Commissioner John Koskinen on Friday. Ryan was talking about the IRS' assertion that emails from former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner, who is accused of targeting conservative groups, were deleted.

"You are the Internal Revenue Service," Ryan said. "You can reach into the lives of hard-working taxpayers, and with a phone call, an email, or a letter, you can turn their lives upside-down. You ask taxpayers to hang on to seven years of their personal tax information in case they are ever audited, and you can't keep six months' worth of employee emails?"